In recent years, the intense research activities devoted to nanomaterials and their applications have led to development efforts aimed at achieving a wide variety of composite nanomaterials. It has been found that by finely mixing two or more materials or phases having different characteristics on a nanoscale, different properties, i.e. multifunctions, which are not attainable by either bulk composite material nor single phase nanomaterials, can be attained. Such composite materials, particularly nanoscale composites having portions with distinct material properties, are attractive for many applications. These multifunctional nanomaterials are particularly attractive for biological and biomedical applications, such as sensing, imaging, diagnosis, and therapeutics.